Winter update

We are pleased to announce that since Hurricane Matthew, the clinic has treated more than 1,800 people for free.

The marketplace in Petionville, Port-au-Prince, was set on fire by the losing political parties, forcing us to temporarily discontinue our mobile clinic in the Petionville ghetto.

Before giving you more clinic updates, allow us to explain a bit about the political situation in Haiti. The island has been without proper government for more than a year, because the election results were said to be fraudulent. So after a full year of political chaos and street riots, Haiti finally voted two weeks ago, the results having been proclaimed last week. Jovenel Moïse who won one year ago won again with a strong majority of 56%.

His political opponents had already called to riots before the election results were published, and those riots continue right now. They are expected to last through mid-January, when Mr. Moïse finally gets sworn in. He succeeds the former president, first in a long time to neither be corrupt nor hold on to power, and is seen as a man of the people. We think this is why his opponents-generally corrupt-caused such an uproar about his election.

In general, the clinic has been open almost every day, though it was closed more than we would have liked through these turbulent times. Jinpa's assessment of the situation is that "it's so cheap in Haiti to pay a few people to start a riot in your favor." Everyone is hungry and out of work. So why not get paid to help cause a riot?

In the meantime, many donations of medicine have arrived in New York and France. We already have sent some and are preparing the rest to be shipped. Thank you for all the wonderful contributions!

Making the clinic permanent

Jinpa receiving a box of essential oil donations to ship.

As for the clinic, our team of three women will be able to continue working for the weeks to come. Keelan, a male nurse from Canada will join them for two weeks in mid-January. Camio, Marie-Lucie, and Nelia have now experienced the joy of saving lives and are very dedicated to the task. They all know aromatherapy very well, and we have given them some Skype classes on homeopathy to advance their skills—a real challenge with ever-failing electricity and phone lines.

More supplies are in the mail as the clinic has run out of essential oils. This is a good exercise for the team to find a homeopathic remedy for the same condition they usually treat with essential oils. For instance, we helped them work out that Pulsatilla and Aconite work well for the kind of palpitations in the highly stressed poor women fighting to make a few pennies to keep their children alive. (I can't say "fed", because that sounds like full meals.) They also report great success treating head colds, pain, etc.

The team at Woodland Essence not only sent fabulous herbs and herbal salves, but also toys for the children.

What is most remarkable is that people say again and again that the natural treatments not only eliminate their symptoms, but actually strengthens them so that they do not relapse for several months afterwards. This goes from colds and flu to worms and vaginal infections. We are thrilled by this confirmation that natural remedies strengthen our life force rather than weakening it.

Administering homeopathic cina for worms in water.

Our goal is to keep the clinic running two days a week, always at the same time, so people know when it is open and can travel there to get treatment. We are also hoping to revive the mobile clinic, once the streets are safe enough for the team to go into other parts of town.

It is really a gift of hope

While the clinic has a very good track record of healing, what is almost more important is that it offers a beacon hope. It breaks our hearts to receive the photos and see the hopelessness written all over people's faces, and to see how skinny and hungry people look.

The photo on the left betrays that, in order for the parents be able to afford sending their children to school, they have to starve them. The photo on the right shows people waiting in line to be seen at the Petionville clinic (inside a church).

People often ask us, “Why does this always happen in Haiti?” The simple answer is that Haiti is quite capable of sustaining itself, but repeated foreign invasions have broken down that ability (such as France, Germany, and the United States repeatedly stealing Haiti's gold reserves by force).

Children come to the clinic after school.

Furthermore, Haiti is in the main path of hurricanes, and with climate change the storms are now more frequent and more severe. The island is also situated on a major fault line running all the way to Mexico, so earthquakes are to be expected. But because it's such a poor country, everything is built with inferior construction materials, which makes buildings in Haiti more vulnerable to earthquakes and hurricane winds than buildings in richer countries.

Lastly, Haiti used to be able to sustain itself with its own agricultural production, but foreign aid has changed the market in a way that makes it impossible for local farmers to compete, leaving them impoverished. Food from industrial agriculture made in USA has flooded the market, pushing out local goods such as rice and lemons. See "The Curse of Charity in Haiti" for more about this problem.

Camio making an essential oil blend—we ask patients who live nearby to bring a bottle with a little vegetable oil for their blends. Right: It takes some explaining for people to understand how the tiny homeopathic granules can be powerful enough to heal.